MY DXCC project

I am thinking of taking a different tack on my DXCC project.
I am trying to establish 2 way communication with 100 different countries right now and I am at the early stage where I am just racking them up. Most likely it will go the route of my Worked All States project in that the last 5% will take more work than the first 95% did but I digress.

On my WAS project I made sure I had paper QSL cards for every state and took them to an ARRL card checker for confirmation and went through the ARRL to get their certificate. I figure I had maybe $100 total in QSL costs when you figure the cost of having the cards printed and the cost of postage, under a buck apiece.

Foreign QSL is a lot more expensive than that as overseas postage is running $1.05 or so just for an overseas stamp. The process is generally that you send the QSO overseas a QSL card, a self addressed envelope and either a couple international postage doodads or two bucks to cover return postage.

It adds up pretty fast and you can figure about $3.50 to $5 every time a QSL card goes overseas, depending on location as there are a few places where postage can run as high as 3 USD.

I have a 100% QSL policy in that if you send me a card I will cheerfully send you one in return because I consider this to be good manners and generally the guy that sends you one needs it for a project he is working on.

However, as far as my DXCC project goes, I am not going to try and get a certificate because it will wind up being not only a hassle getting 100+ paper QSLs, but because it is downright expensive.

I've had several guys that have done this tell me that.

While there are a couple of electronic QSL forums out there, a lot of hams do not use them.

Because I am not going for a certificate of proof and am just doing a DXCC thing for myself I think I'll use my logbook to keep score.

After all, I don't havve to prove anything to anybody.
　
　

my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/